The invention relates to a system for the anonymous counting of information items for statistical purposes, enabling the anonymity of the processed information to be preserved in an assured manner with regard to unauthorized persons.
A first application of such a system, as will be seen later, relates to statistical counting, most particularly systems for remote "electronic voting".
In these systems, it is often desirable and even indispensable to preserve the anonymous nature of the voting (the principle of voting by "secret ballot"), whilst being able to verify the identity of a voter in such a way as to prevent any falsification of identity or multiple voting. Moreover, it is necessary to indicate to the voter that his vote has actually been taken into account, this aspect being particularly important in the case of remote voting since difficulties of transmission or of processing may arise without the voter being able to detect them himself. Another possible application relates to systems for the remote surveying of consumption by means of a canvassing system installed at the user's premises.
In this case it is indispensable to preserve a degree of confidentiality so as to preclude the possibility that the information relating to the user, who is necessarily identified (for verification purposes) during transmission of the information, can be hijacked in order to obtain information about the habits, private life, etc. of the person from whom this information originates.